FFLUID Forum – Julian Foley

FFLUID (Families and Friends Living United in Diversity) welcomes Julian Foley.

Julian is best known for his Ted Talks youth presentation:

Transcending the Binary: The Art of Becoming Me

Julian Foley is 19 years old and has identified as transgender since 2013. Growing up he went through phases of uncertainty and insecurity of who he was, especially in high school. Identity was a complete stranger. When he lived as female, he wasn't really living much at all. Who he was was nowhere to be seen.
When he became more educated on transgender people towards the end of his freshman year of high school at Newbury Park in 2013, a new door was opened into a life and way of thinking he never thought would ever be possible. In fact, he didn't see a life for him at all. There was no woman to grow up to be because he wasn't even a girl to begin with. Throughout that summer Julian struggled deeply with deciding whether or not he should proceed to transition or not. While he denied his realizations and disregarded his identity, he was also taunted by the thought of being someone he never could be. As his sophomore year began, he became more open to himself and the world about who he was, and soon enough, most of his peers were calling him Julian. In January 2014, he was able to start testosterone at the age of barely 16.

Today he is over 3 years on testosterone and has spoken at several events, including a Ted Talk during his junior year of high school, where he attended Century Academy, an independent study school in Thousand Oaks. In 2015, he received the Community Hero of the Year award from the Diversity Collective's annual Gala. He is now in his sophomore year of college where he is taking general education classes before he transfers somewhere to pursue art, activism, and writing. Julian has come a long way in the last 4 years but continues to change and learn everyday.
Please join us as Julian will discuss what progressing means to him and how we should all strive to progress every day. Julian will be giving a presentation on important transgender issues and topics and will be addressing common questions, concerns, and information that anyone should know in order to be a better ally to the transgender community. There will be a Q&A after the presentation, as well as spoken word throughout!